Erykah Badu, born Erica Abi Wright, was born February 26, 1971 in Dallas, Texas. Erykah was raised by a single mother along with her brother and sister. Badu’s introduction to music at the young age of four. She began singing and dancing at the Dallas Theater Center and The Black Academy of Arts and Letters. At the age of 14, Badu really started to become who she wanted to be. She began free-styling at a local radio station. It was in this era where Erica became Erykah. She changed the spelling of her name because her old one reminded her too much of a slave name. Then she adopted the last name Badu, which was her favorite scat sound. After graduating high school, Badu went on to attend college at Grambling State University where she studied theatre. Erykah believed her dream at that time was bigger than college, so she left to start her full time music career. In order to make money, she taught drama and dance to children at the South Dallas Cultural Center. Working. While teaching Badu, also was in a music group with her cousin, Robert “Free” Bradford. Their group was called Country Cousins. Badu was discovered Kedar Massenburg while in the group and  he set her up to record a duet with R’N B singer D’Angelo called “Your Precious Love”. Massenburg eventually signed her to a record deal with Universal Records.